Hope's Destiny
by Theweatherman53
Summary: An 02 remix. Tk moves to Tamachi and goes to school with Ken. Things go down a bit differently and it's a lot darker. It will also explore the rivalry/friendship that Davis and Tk share.
1. And So It Begins Again

There's always something exciting about starting at a new school. Sure he was gonna have to make all new friends and learn the ins and outs of a whole new place, but the change was still exciting. Sure when his mom told him they were moving, he hoped it was to Odaiba so he could be closer to all his friends, the other digidestined, but at least Tomachi was just across the bridge from Odaiba. He'd be able to visit them regularly.

Oh well, he said goodbye to his mother and headed off to school. It was only a short walk to school and it was a beautiful fall day. He would be lying if he said he didn't miss all of his friends and especially Patamon, but he had learned to survive on his own. He was a friendly enough kid and had no trouble making new friends, but he still felt as though losing the digital world had left a huge hole in his life that he couldn't seem to fill.

He hoped that being that much closer to his digidestined friends would help fill the hole. His thoughts were interrupted when he entered the school grounds and heard the warning bell ring. He looked up and realized he'd have to run to find his classroom otherwise he'd be late.

He ran through the hallways trying to find room 211 and found it just as the late bell rang. He quickly went in and found a seat near the back. As the teacher spoke he began to study his surroundings. The kids all seemed friendly enough with a few still joking around with each other as the teacher started the morning lessons. Two boys next to him were secretly playing a game of paper football. They glanced at him and he smiled, they smiled back and went back to their game.

As Tk continued to study the children in his class he saw a boy in the front row that seemed very familiar. He was tall and thin with black almost purple hair. Tk couldn't figure out how he knew him, but he just knew that he did. As the class went on, the teacher addressed the familiar boy as Ken and that's whent Tk figured it out. That was Ken Ichijouji, the famous boy genius that everyone talked about. Tk knew that he lived in Tamachi, but didn't connect that he would also be going to elementary school there.

Meanwhile over in Odaiba, Davis was out in front of the school playing basketball with a bunch of his friends. Soccer was his number one sport, but he loved playing basketball too. He was a pretty good shooter and was likely going to be one of the best players on the team that year. He caught a glimpse of his crush Kari out of the corner of his eye and decided that he wanted to try and impress her. He dribbled by the guy defending him and pulled up quickly for a three pointer. It went in barely moving the net in the process. He looked over to see if Kari had seen it only to be disappointed. He started to run down to the other end of the court still watching Kari and he tripped and fell face first into one of his friends taking them both to the ground.

Of course Kari saw that and giggled along with the rest of the girls. He could never catch a break, he always seemed to do stupid things in front of her. It didn't help that his annoying friend Yolei decided it would be funny to taunt him because of the fall, "Still learning to walk, huh Davis?"

"Shut up, Yolei!" yelled Davis as he rubbed the knee that he had fallen on. School was about to start so the game broke up and Davis ran to meet up with Kari, since they were in the same class. "Hey Kari, how was your summer?"

"It was really nice, Davis, thanks for asking. How was yours?" Kari smiled pleasantly at her friend.

"Oh it was alright, I decided to start working out this summer so I spent most of the time at the gym." Even as he was saying it he couldn't believe he was. He hadn't spent all summer in the gym, he went maybe a couple times a month. He always said stupid things when he was around her.

She giggled at him and said, "I can tell," as she wrapped almost her whole hand around his tiny stick of an arm. Davis blushed and pulled his arm away quickly. The day dragged on for Davis like most school days do, but he at least got to spend the whole day sitting next to Kari. By the end of the day he was restless and ready to get out of the school.

"Hey Kari, do you wanna walk home together?" Davis asked the fairly innocent question as he and Kari exited their classroom at the end of the day. They lived on the same street and had for years walked home together. Davis hoped that this year would be more of the same.

"I'd love to Davis, but I have a friend stopping by the school and I wanted to stop in and say hi to him."

"Him?" Davis asked a bit taken aback thinking another guy was moving in on his crush. "Oh that's fine I'll just go with you and we can walk home together afterwards.:

"That would be really nice, Davis, thanks." Kari knew Davis liked her, it would be hard not to know it, but she thought it was harmless and enjoyed his company as a friend. They made their way to the computer lab together and opened the door to find Izzy glued to a computer screen. "Hi, Izzy, it's great to see you."

"Oh hey Kari, you're here too, that's great," he said without looking up, "Now we can go help your brother in the digital world."

"Is Tai in trouble? What's the digital world? Who is this guy anyway Kari?" Asked a very confused Davis.

Izzy jumped at the sound of his voice and looked up quickly, "Oh hi there, sorry Kari I didn't know you brought a friend."

"Oh don't worry about him Izzy, what are you talking about? Is Tai in the digital world?"

"You mean you didn't get the email? I was on my way here to help with the computer club when I got it. I just assumed he sent it to you too."

Kari pulled out her D-terminal (the little handheld computers they had all gotten to keep in touch) and looked through her email. Davis was curious and looked over Kari's shoulder and read the message from Tai, "Agumon and I are in trouble, we need help. Come to the digital world as soon as possible."

He startled Kari by speaking right into her ear, "Who's Agumon and what's the digital world? If Tai is in trouble, I want to help."

Izzy was a bit surprised at this, "How do you know Tai?"

"He's volunteered to help with our soccer team the past couple of years. So are we gonna go to this digital world and help him or are we just gonna stand here staring at each other."

From behind them they heard a voice at the door, "What's the digital world?" It was Yolei standing in the doorway.

Kari and Izzy were speechless trying to figure out if they should spill the beans on the digital world when Davis spoke up, "I don't know either, but Kari's brother is in trouble there and needs our help."

Yolei looked a bit surprised, "Really that sounds like fun, it's like a video game right? I wanna go too."

Before anyone could say anything else Cody, a student a few years younger than them came up, "Yolei, you promised you'd come over and fix my computer after school. We should get going my mother worries if I don't come home right away." Yolei looked upset but knew her friend was right and turned to walk away with him.

"Well now that those two are gone, are we gonna go to the digital world or not?" yelled Davis excitedly.

"It's not that easy, Davis," Kari began, "Not everyone can go to the digital world, you have to have a digivice," she finished pulling out her digivice to show him while Izzy did the same.

"Well that's not fair, Tai's in trouble and I wanna help him." As he said that three bright lights shot out of the computer Izzy was working on and one flew straight to Davis. When the light cleared he had what appeared to be a digivice in his hand, it was a bit different than the old ones, but it was clearly a digivice. "Sweet! Looks like I'm part of the cool crowd now too. Let's get going Tai needs us."

Kari nodded and held up her digivice to the computer and was sucked in. Davis hesitated for a second before he followed suit. It was a weird experience entering the digital world, but Davis decided he liked it, especially because he found himself in a really awesome bomber jacket in that world. "Wow, I didn't expect a whole new wardrobe in this world."

Kari looked at him with confusion, "Yeah, its kind of weird that only you got a new wardrobe. Where's Izzy? I thought he was right behind us."

Davis wanting to have some alone time with carry brushed that off, "Oh don't worry about it, someone probably just came into the computer room and he had to cover for us or something like that."

"You're probably right, we should try to find my brother. We should be able to track him using our digivices." Davis kept trying to talk to Kari but she was too focused on finding her brother to think about idle chit chat. Davis eventually decided that he'd have to be content to just be with her.

After a few minutes of walking Davis spotted some blond kid in the distance. "Man, how many people know about this world anyway?" as he pointed to the boy.

Kari looked up, but then ignored Davis's question as she yelled out, "Tk, over here!" and started running to meet up with him. Davis did not like the looks of that. Who was this guy to be cutting into Davis's alone time with Kari. He shook that thought away and chased after Kari.

Kari ran up to the boy and gave him a big hug, "Tk, its so great to see you, its been at least two months, we need to get together more often."

Tk responded, "Its great to see you too, Kari, and now that I'm living in Tamachi we should be able to see each other a whole lot more."

"That's right you moved, are you guys all settled in? How's your mom? Do you like you're new school?"

The two were so caught up with each other that they seemed to completely ignore Davis before his interrupted the conversation and spoke up. "Hey guys, shouldn't we be looking for Tai, his email did say that he needed help."

"Oh right, I think my digivice registered him over this way, I came to check out your signal first," said Tk as he came to his senses. "Who are you anyway?" Tk asked of Davis.

Davis was about to respond when Kari stepped in with her perfect manors, "Oh I'm sorry. Tk, this is Davis, a friend from my school, and Davis this is Tk, he's one of my best friends and a member of the team that went with Tai, Izzy, and myself to the digital world four years ago."

Tk smiled at Davis and stretched out his hand towards him as they began to walk towards Tai's digivice signal, "Nice to meet you Davis, where'd you get a digivice anyway," Tk asked as he had seen the signal from Davis's digivice on his own.

Davis ignored Tk's hand and grunted a response, "The thing just shot out of the computer at me, right before we came here. Not sure what that means."

Tk seemed a little taken aback by Davis being so rude, but responded warmly, "It means that you're apart of our team now too. So welcome aboard."

Davis grunted again and Kari could tell there was clearly some tension between the boys. "Let's just hurry up and find Tai, if he's in trouble then we might in danger too, we'll all be better off when we're together."

"Don't worry Kari, I won't let anything hurt you and we'll save Tai too," Davis exclaimed confidently. Tk chuckled a bit about his ignorance. Davis glared at Tk, who just shook his head in disbelief.

"Tai can handle himself Kari and we've faced plenty of dangerous things in this place, there's nothing we can't handle together. Remember how bad things looked in the fight against Piedmon. If that didn't stop us, nothing in this world can," Tk said with a smile.

Kari smiled at Tk, "You're right Tk, whatever it is putting the digiworld in danger is no match for us." The two old friends both laughed together as Davis trailed behind them fuming. He didn't like this guy being so buddy buddy with Kari and stepping all over Davis's attempt to impress her.

A little while later they found Tai, Agumon, Patamon, and Gatomon at the mouth of a cave.

"Tk! Tk! Tk!" cried Patamon as he flew into his partner's arms.

"Hey buddy, its been way too long, I've really missed you."

"I've missed you too," replied the little digimon.

Kari had run up to Gatomon and was hugging her and petting her softly. Davis just stood there in shock before Tai came up to greet him. "Hey there Davis, what brings you to this dimension?"

Davis just pulled out his new digivice, "This thing came out of the computer so I came with Kari to come find you. I thought you needed our help, everything seems to be okay here?"

"Well, we were being chased by a Kuwagamon, but he seems to have left us alone for now."

"Why didn't Agumon just digivolve and kick his ass?"

"Tk! Language!" cried Kari.

"Sorry, MOM!" Tk said sticking his tongue out at Kari only to have both of them laugh.

"That's just it, Agumon can't digivolve," answered Tai.

"None of us can," added Patamon.

"Yeah there's this mean human that calls himself the digimon emperor and somehow he's made it so nobody can digivolve," finished Gatomon.

"Another human here, that's weird I though only digidestined could enter the digital world," replied Tk.

"Maybe he's like a rogue digidestined dude or something like that," Davis wondered.

"Maybe, anything's possible at this point," Tai said as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Oh, I almost forgot, follow us, we found something in this cave." They all followed Tai into the cave. When they got to a big open room underground they saw a weird red digi-egg with a spike coming out of it.

"What is that thing?" asked Kari.

"I'm not sure, I think it's some kind of egg and it has the crest of courage on it," answered Tai.

"Then it must be yours, Tai, just pick it up."

"I tried that, Tk. I couldn't pick it up and as soon as I touched it three beams of light shot out of it. I'm guessing one of those was probably your digivice, Davis."

"That's cool, but wait, does that mean two other kids also got these digivice things? I wonder who they are," said Davis with pride.

Tk was still staring at the digi-egg, "Well if you couldn't pick it up Tai, maybe it's meant for one of us." He stepped up to the thing and tried to lift it, but it wouldn't budge. "You try, Kari, Tai is your brother after all, maybe the courage rubbed off on you over the years." Kari stepped up and tried only to fail as well.

"Maybe its yours, Davis, you are a digidestined now after all," Kari said as she rejoined the group.

Taking this as another opportunity to impress Kari, Davis stepped up to the egg and prepared for a heavy lift, "Yeah, I've been working out so this should be a piece of cake." He bent his knees and put his hands on the egg before he took a deep breath and gave it all he had. The egg broke free so easily that Davis fell backwards onto his butt. "See I told you guys, piece of cake."

There was a hole beneath the egg and out of it jumped a little blue digimon, "Did somebody say cake? I don't know what that is, but it sounds delicious!"

Davis jumped back a little bit at the sudden appearance of the little blue monster. "Ahh! What are you?"

"Well I'm Veemon and I'm your new partner. You're the one who was able to move the digi-egg of courage, Davis, and that means we're partners."

"You know my name?"

"Of course, I do, I've been waiting for you for a long time, Davis."

"It's a official Davis, you have a digimon and everything you must be a digidestined now," encouraged Tai as he slapped the younger boy on the back.

Just as everyone was recovering from the shock of Veemon's appearance a Monochromon burst into the room enraged about something.

"Why's that Monochromon so mad?" asked Tk.

"It's because he's under the control of the digimon emperor," answered Agumon, "Do you see that black ring around his belly? That's how the emperor controls digimon, if we can destroy that then he should go back to normal."

"But how can we destroy that thing if none of you can digivolve?" asked Kari.

"I'm not sure, but maybe now's not the best time to stand around thinking about it, Run!" cried Gatomon as the Monochromon attacked, "I'll try to hold him off and give you a chance to get away." Gatomon lunged at the beast ready to use her lightning paw on his head and stop him in his tracks. Instead the creature jumped in the air and used his powerful tail to knock Gatomon to the ground.

The children and the other digimon ran down another tunnel trying to get away. Davis still held the egg in his hand as he ran. "Davis, I can beat that guy, if you activate my digi-armor," cried Veemon as he motioned to the egg.

Davis pulled the egg up to look at it, "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Just do what comes naturally to you, Davis," encouraged Veemon.

"Okay, here it goes, Digi-armor energize!" At that Veemon tripled in size and pieces of the egg attached themselves to his body as armor. "Woah, is that still Veemon?" asked Davis in shock at the incredible transformation.

"Not anymore, Davis, now I'm Flamedramon and I'll make quick work of that dark ring." At that Flamedramon ran back down the tunnel they had come from passing Gatomon on the way.

"I held him off as long as I could, but boy is he strong," gasped Gatomon.

"I though you were supposed to be a champion," teased Patamon.

Gatomon glared at Patamon before responding, "I just haven't been the same without my tail ring, I can't find it anywhere.

Davis was really excited and started running after his digimon, "Come on guys, lets go see Flamedramon in action." At that they all ran back down the tunnel hoping to catch a glimpse of the battle. When they made it back down to the big room they saw Flamedramon dodge the charging Monochromon and grab it by it's tail and throw it against the wall. While it was stunned he jumped up into the air and used his fire rocket attack to destroy the dark ring.

After things had settled down Flamedramon returned to his original form as Veemon. The egg turned into Data and shot into Davis's pocket. When Davis reached in he saw he had a D-terminal just like Kari and the others and that an icon of an egg was present on the screen.

"That was awesome, Davis, way to go you two and welcome to the team!" cheered Tai as the room settled down. After the short celebration they all went back to the surface and found a tv that they could use to get home. In no time at all they found themselves in a pile on the floor of the Odaiba elementary computer room.


	2. A Few Words Among Friends

A flustered Izzy greeted the group as they untangled themselves from the pile on the floor. "Well, welcome back everyone. I'm sure glad I wasn't sitting there when you burst through that screen." He rubbed the back of his head as Tai, Kari, Tk, and Davis noticed Yolei in the room. "I was just explaining some of the finer points of the digital world to Yolei here. It seems as though she too received one of those new digivices."

"That's cool, the digital world is awesome and me and my new buddy Veemon really kicked that monster's ass." Davis felt Kari glaring at him, "I mean butt, we kicked his butt," he corrected as he smiled at Kari.

"Aw man, I really wanted to go, but Izzy wouldn't let me," whined Yolei.

"Don't worry about Yolei, I'm totally going back tomorrow and like everyday after that. My mom's been telling me to get a new hobby and I think I just found it," exclaimed Davis excitedly.

"Hey guys, it's starting to get dark I think its about time we headed home, our parents might start to worry about us," Tai said, interrupting the ramblings of the two younger kids. They all nodded and began to file out of the room.

"So Kari, are we still walking home together?" asked Davis while smiling arrogantly at Tk.

"No, you go ahead Davis, Tai and I need to talk with Izzy and Tk for a few minutes." Davis looked downright crushed by the rejection. Tk only made it worse by returning the arrogant smile Davis had just given him.

"Okay Kari, I'll see you tomorrow I guess." And at that Davis and Yolei left quietly leaving the four original digidestined to wonder about the new developments in the digital world.

"So what's going on?" asked Izzy quietly, feeling a little uncomfortable being out of the loop.

"I'm not really sure, but it doesn't seem good," replied Tai as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Our digimon can't digivolve, and there's some guy calling himself the digimon emperor enslaving digimon with these weird rings," added Tk trying to fill in Izzy the best he can.

"But somehow Davis was able to get his digimon to digivolve using some kind of digi-egg. It was like some kind of new type of digivolution; I've never seen anything quite like it."

"Hmm, interesting, maybe I should try to contact Gennai and see if he knows anything about it," started Izzy, "In the meantime it would probably be good to try and meet up with the other's tonight and talk this out."

"That sounds like a good idea, why don't we head home for now. Kari, Tk, and I will try to get ahold of the others while you email Gennai and see if you can get some answers. Then we can all meet at the park tonight at 8:30. Is that gonna be a problem Tk? I know you live across the river."

"Nah, I'll just crash at dad's place take a train to school in the morning. It shouldn't be a problem."

"Cool then let's get to it." They all headed home, well Tk headed to the Kamiya's home, to get some food and prepare for their meeting. On the walk home Tai chatted with Tk, often doing most of the talking. Kari was unusually quiet and Tk was too distracted by that to pay much attention to Tai.

Once they got to the Kamiya apartment Tais sprinted off to his room to start making phone calls. Mrs. Kamiya greeted them from the kitchen. "Hi mom, Tk's here, is it okay if he stays for dinner?"

Mrs. Kamiya poked her head out of the kitchen excitedly, "Tk's here! Of course he can stay, you're always welcome here, Tk. Its been a while, its great to see you."

"Thanks, Mrs Kamiya, its great to see you too. Hopefully we'll see more of each other now that I live closer."

"Oh I hope so. You kids settle in Dinner will be ready in a half hour."

Tk bowed politely and followed Kari to her room. She sat on her bed quietly and looked at the floor. Tk went over and sat next to her. "Kari, what's wrong, you've barely spoken since we got back from the digital world."

She sighed deeply as if she didn't know where to start. "I guess I'm just not sure how I feel about going back to the digital world."

Tk was stunned he was thrilled to be going back, "What do you mean? Aren't you excited about being able to spend time with Gatomon again?"

"Of course I am, but whenever we get pulled into the digital world something horrible is happening. I'm just not sure I can go through all of that again."

"Kari, we can get through anything together. We've faced evil over and over again and come out it better off than we were before, what makes you think this is going to be any different."

"I'm not sure, its just a feeling I have I guess. Plus, there's also the little matter of our enemy being human this time. We've destroyed the evil of the digital world in the past. I'm not sure I can bring myself to destroy another human, can you?"

Tk sat back, he hadn't thought about that. He hated evil and was willing to do whatever it took to stop it, but could he really kill another human being? Was this person really completely evil or was he just confused or misinformed?

"I guess I'm just not sure if the digital world has a place for me anymore, Tk. I don't know if I can handle another battle against evil, Tk. It's just too much for me." Kari starts to cry and Tk puts his arm around her shoulder.

"It's okay Kari, I won't let anything happen to you and if things get too rough, vent to me. Let me carry the burden of fighting against the darkness. In the same way you feel unsure about the digital world, I'm positive there's still plenty for me to do there."

"Thanks, Tk, I'm glad we're doing this together, I've missed you."

"Don't worry about it," Tk said as he blushed. They sat in silence for a couple minutes before Tk decided to lighten the mood. "So what's going on with this Davis guy? He's obviously totally in love with you."

It was Kari's turn to blush, "I guess he isn't that subtle."

"Are you kidding me? Earthquakes are more subtle. I'm surprised Tai has tried to kill him for flirting with you so much."

"I'm pretty sure Tai has put the fear of God in him, but his crush is mostly harmless and he's a fun guy to be around so I don't mind it."

"You mean you actually like him? He's so arrogant and obnoxious. I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to handle spending so much time around."

"Oh, come on, Tk, he's not that bad."

"Yeah, I guess. At least I know how to mess with him, he seems really jealous of me. All I have to do is throw you a flirty smile and he'll be seething mad."

Kari playfully hit Tk on the shoulder, "You're cruel, Tk." They heard Kari's mom call them from the kitchen saying that dinner was ready.

They had a fairly nice meal together, even if the food was a little odd (Mrs. Kamiya was always experimenting with unusual recipes). Tai was excited because it looked like everyone was going to be able to make the meeting that night. It had been close to a year since all eight of them had been together, so Tai was excited to once again be the leader of the whole group.

"So what's this about these new digidestined?" asked Matt as he approached Tai, Kari, Sora, Izzy, and his younger brother Tk, who had already gathered at the park.

"We should probably wait for the others to show up, I don't wanna have to explain this over and over again," Tai replied.

"I was beginning to accept that the digital world was done with us, but now I'm not so sure," said Sora quietly.

"I know what you mean, Sora, I had just started to accept that I would never see Gabumon ever again and then I got that message from Tai today," added Matt as the old friends sat around waiting for the last two to show up.

"Wow, its so weird to hear you guys say that. I never doubted for a second that I'd see Patamon again. I just haven't felt complete since we were last in the digital world. I always knew I'd be going back. Being there today just felt right," replied Tk.

Just as Tk finished speaking Joe and Mimi ran up to the group together. "Sorry we're late everyone, Joe was tutoring me in biology and we lost track of time."

"It's alright Mimi, we wouldn't start without you guys," said Tai kindly.

"So let's get on with it, I want some answers," demanded Matt impatiently.

"Well, it started today when my digivice started making a weird buzzing noise," Tai began, "Somehow I just knew that Augmon was in trouble and before I knew it I was in the digital world. I was pulled there just like that first time up at summer camp. Agumon was being hunted by the slaves of the digimon emperor."

"Who's this digimon emperor person anyway, what kind of digimon is it?" asked Mimi.

"Gatomon said the emperor isn't a digimon, but a human like us," answered Kari.

"How did someone besides us get into the digital world?" Sora wondered out loud.

"We're not totally sure, but my guess is that this person might have some kind of digivice as well. It seems to be about the only thing that makes sense," Izzy chipped in with enthusiasm, he loved having mysteries to try and solve.

"So what happened next, Tai?" Matt said trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Well Agumon and I were able to get away and hide out in a cave nearby. That's where we found this weird digi-egg. It had the crest of courage on it, but it was too heavy for me to pick up. When I touched it three bright lights shot out of it and went up through a hole in the street."

"We now assume that those three lights were the new digivices seeking out their digidestined," interrupted Izzy.

"Right, so anyway a few minutes after I touched the egg Patamon and Gatomon had found us. They were running away from the slaves too," continued Tai," And then after another twenty minutes or so Kari, Tk, and Davis showed up."

"And neither Kari or I could lift the egg either, but Davis tried it and it seemed to be light as a feather," finished Tk, "And after he lifted it his digimon popped up before we were attacked by a Monochromon."

"Then Davis was somehow able to make his digimon Veemon digivolve using the egg. Veemon called armor digivolving. I have never seen anything like it," Tai concluded.

"Wow, that sounds intense, I wonder what that armor digivolution thing is all about. Can all digimon do it?" asked Matt.

"Well according to Gennai, no," answered Izzy.

"Wait Gennai got back to you already? That was fast," Tai commented.

"Actually by the time I got home I had an email from Gennai waiting for me detailing a good deal of new information that we might need. He said that armor digivolution is an ancient form of digivolving that very few digimon are capable of engaging in. He gave the impression that none of us older kids will be able to do it. He also said that it's the new digivices that are going to be able to open the digital gates around the world from here on out."

"So it sound likes there isn't a whole lot we can do right now but offer our support to these new kids," said Joe wisely.

"Its a little weird to think that we're no longer the only digidestined out there," added Sora, "But I'm more than happy to pitch and help them figure this new world out, when are they going next?"

"Tomorrow, I think, if they'll wait for me I'll make my way to the school here right after I get off school myself," said Tk quietly.

"Well I'm in," added Sora.

"Me too, no way I'm missing out on the digital world two days in a row," declared Izzy.

"I'll be there too," said Tai excitedly.

"I can't I have to study tomorrow night," said Joe.

"And I've got cheer practice starting tomorrow," added Mimi.

"My band's got rehearsals, we have a big show this weekend," Matt said, a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be able to make it to the digital world.

"That's okay, the rest of us can handle things this time," encouraged Tai.

"Kari, you've been kind of quiet, did you wanna say something?" asked Sora thoughtfully.

Tk looked at Kari nervously, unsure if she was ready to tell the rest of the group her fears. "I'm just worried about the enemy being human this time. It was bad enough when we had to destroy digimon. I'm not sure if I'd be able to bring myself to destroy another human if it came to that."

The whole group went silent, its clear that no one had considered the idea that they might have to kill another human to save the digital world. In their first adventure their main opponents were digimon born into evil and unwilling to change. In their hearts they knew that no human was evil beyond salvation. They began to fear having to kill someone who might later change and become good.

Tai finally spoke up, "Let's try not to think about that until the time comes. Until then let's just work to free the digimon this emperor has enslaved and figure out who he is."

"That sounds like a wise plan," added Izzy and at that the group split up and headed home.

Tk and Matt walked back to their Dad's place together. It had been a few weeks since the two had spent any time alone, so Matt took the opportunity to catch up a bit with his brother. "So did you and mom get moved in okay? Do you like the new place?"

Tk kicked a rock as he responded, "Yeah the place is alright; mom's barely even started unpacking her stuff. I'm not even sure if she's spent more than one waking hour in the apartment. The new job is kind of taking over her life."

Matt looked at his brother intently trying to figure out how Tk really felt about their mom's new job. "So you guys haven't been able to spend much time together?"

Tk was staring at the ground as they walked quietly along, "Not really, she's been so busy, I hardly ever see her. She didn't even respond when I texted her and told her I was staying at your place tonight."

Matt watched him again as he sulked along, he didn't like seeing his normally cheerful brother like this. He wanted to say something that would make him feel better about the whole thing, maybe tell him that their mother does love him, but it would just seem forced and kind of cheesy. He decided a change of topic was in order, "So are you gonna go out for the basketball team at school? I know how much you love playing."

Tk brightened up a little bit, he did love basketball and liked talking about it about as much as he liked playing it. "Yeah I think so, its a new school and all but I'm pretty sure I can be a big part of the team."

"Well you were the star at your old school so I'm sure the new team will be lucky to have you." Matt was really proud of his brother, he'd never been much of an athlete himself, but he had a lot of fun supporting his brother.

"Whatever, Matt, I wasn't that good," Tk said with a wry smile clearly trying to act more modest than he actually was.

"Don't give me that Tk, I know you think you're hot stuff when you're on the court. And don't even try to convince me that you never noticed all the girls who clearly went to your games just to see you play," Matt teased his little brother.

Tk blushed at Matt's comment. Sure he loved the attention that he got from playing basketball, but he always felt uncomfortable when the spotlight was totally on him. He never knew what to do once he had everyone's attention. He decided to play up the heartthrob jock persona Matt seemed to be thrusting upon him. "I can't help it if my fangirls want a little more of all this," Tk said making a hand gesture to indicate he meant himself and all his hotness. "You know, Matt, if you're jealous, I'm sure I could hook you up with some of my fangirls. Not the hot ones of course, but after all beggars can't be choosers."

Matt just started cracking up. The whole comeback was just so out of character for Tk he couldn't help but laugh. Tk joined in and the two brothers enjoyed the moment. They were almost home when Matt had a thought. "From the way things looked tonight at the meeting, your fangirls might be very disappointed. What's going on between you and Kari?"

This made Tk blush an even darker red and turn his eyes back towards the ground. "I don't know what you're talking about Matt; Kari and I are just friends and have been for years."

"Don't give me that shit, Tk. All those looks you two kept giving each other; I have a good eye for this kind of thing. You guys totally have a thing for each other."

Tk didn't respond right away, instead he started thinking about the whole night, especially when Kari cried on his shoulder. He couldn't help but smile, he really liked that moment.

"Ah Ha!" exclaimed Matt, "I knew it, that smile's the smile of someone in love. I'm surprised Tai hasn't said anything yet, I can only imagine what he'd do to you."

"Shut up, Matt!" Tk defend, "Its really not like that, we're just friends that enjoy spending time together. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with that, unless of course you're in love with the girl," Matt said as they approached the apartment and he began to fumble with his keys. He put the key in the lock and opened the door, "Now that you're living so close, we should probably get you a set of keys, who knows how often you might need a place to hide or just hang out."

Tk followed his brother inside and plopped himself down on the couch, "Yeah sounds like a plan." Tk laid himself out and stretched, "I've just decided that whenever I'm here, this is my couch. I've staked my claim."

"Whatever, bro, I love that couch and I live here so its my couch anytime I want it." The words didn't matter much though because Tk had started to drift off to sleep. Matt smiled and headed off to his own room to get some sleep.


	3. The Head and The Heart

After the battle that day, Ken stayed in the digital world a bit longer than he normally would have. He had to figure out why that Veemon was able to digivolve. He also needed to learn more about these kids that invaded his empire. He thought he was the only one able to access the digital world. There was also something about the blond kid that seemed familiar.

"Ken, shouldn't you be getting home? Your parents are probably worried about you." He knew Wormmon was right, his mother was probably finishing up dinner right now and he'd have to be back in time for that or they would start looking for him. He hated being tied to his obligations in the real world. It made getting things done in the digital world, that much harder.

Davis laid in bed that night having a hard time getting to sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about the digital world and his new friend Veemon. He couldn't wait to get back there and have more adventures with his little buddy. The only thing to spoil the day for him was having to be there with that stupid Tk kid. Who was he to butt in and try to steal Davis's girl. In reality, Davis knew that Kari wasn't his girl, but he really liked her and he thought she might like him too, until Tk showed up and captured her attention. Oh well, he figured the digital world would help him spend more time with Kari, even if it meant he had to put up with Tk, it was worth it.

Yolei stared at her digivice for hours that night. She couldn't wait to explore the digital world and all the surprises it had to offer. She was little worried about the monsters Davis was talking about, but more than anything she was just curious about this new world.

Cody didn't know what to make of his digivice or the story he heard from Davis or the things Yolei learned about from Izzy. He felt as though the digivice was more of a responsibility than a gift. What was expected of him now that he had one? Would he be up to the task of protecting the digital world? He felt utterly inadequate and hoped that the older kids could pick up the slack he left behind. He drifted off to sleep thinking about what kind of digimon he might end up having as a partner.

The next day Tk had to wake up very early in order to catch a train and get to school on time. It was a little inconvenient but it was worth it if it meant he could spend some more time with his friends. He had a feeling it wasn't going to be the last time he spent the night at his Dad's place.

At lunch Tk noticed the boy genius Ken sitting in the corner by himself and decided to try and make a new friend. "Hey there, I'm Tk, and you're Ken right?"

Ken looked up from his lunch and was shocked by what he saw, it was the blond kid from the digital world. He wasn't sure how to respond, so he just said, "Hi there."

"Would you mind if I sit here, I don't know anyone at this school?"

Ken smiled evilly and realized that the boy simply wanted to be friends, "Sure you can sit here." Ken decided that it might be in his best interest to befriend the blond boy in order to keep him close and figure out what makes him tick.

Tk quickly discovered that the boy genius wasn't much of a talker, but it didn't stop Tk from quickly befriending him. He also learned that Ken was also going to join the basketball team. Tk was excited that he at least had somebody at school that he now knew and best of all they were also going to be teammates.

After school Tk made a quick pit stop at home and checked to see if the digi-port was open there. He discovered that it opened with his digivice, which he thought was odd because Izzy had said only the new digivices could open the digi-port. He decided to worry about that later and emailed Kari saying that he'd meet them in the digital world.

At Odaiba elementary the whole gang was in the computer lab waiting for Tk. Sora began introducing herself to the new kids while Tai and Izzy hovered around the computer. Kari looked at her email on the D-Terminal and spoke up, "Alright everybody we should get going."

"You mean without Tk? Alright!" cried Davis excitedly.

"No he was just able to open a gate at home so he's gonna meet us there," corrected Kari.

"Aww," whined Davis.

"Well alright then, let's get going," added Tai, "I can't wait to put this digimon emperor guy in his place."

As they prepared to enter the digital world one of the teachers walked in. "Well would you look at that, Tai, Sora, and Izzy all back visiting us at once. How are you three?"

All the kids gave each other panicked looks as they tried to think of a way to get rid of the teacher. Tai thought quickly and spoke up, "I'm doing great sir, but I was wondering if I could talk to you in private. You see I need some advice about high school girls." At that Tai ushered the poor guy out of the room in a hurry giving the rest of the kids a look that said to go ahead without him.

"Thanks a lot Tai, we owe you one," Sora said as if their friend could hear her. At that they all entered the digital world. The whole group collected itself in the digital world.

"Its about time you guys showed up, the digimon emperor isn't gonna defeat himself you know," said Tk cheerily as he greeted all of his friends.

"Yeah whatever Ts, you probably just got here too," argued Davis.

"Did you find anything out while you were waiting for us Tk?" asked Izzy expectantly.

"It appears as though there are a couple digi-eggs back in that forest," Tk answered while studying his digivice.

"Davis! Your back, I brought some friends with me," yelled Veemon as he ran through the forest with Gatomon, Biyomon, and Tentomon following close behind.

"Awesome buddy, good work!" cried Davis.

"Well I can't take all the credit, Tk asked me to go get them and bring them back here."

"Oh, Tk, did huh?" said Davis jealously.

"Tentomon, I'm so happy to see you, I've missed you," Izzy exclaimed happily.

"Oh Izzy, I've missed you too," replied Tentomon.

"Biyomon, its great to see you. Its been a long time."

"I know Sora, it feels like its been ages since we've seen each other."

After a minute or two of that, Davis jumped up and said, "Alright, now that the reunions are over let's go get those digi-eggs." He started sprinting towards the forest with Veemon in tow.

"Hold on, Davis!" yelled Tk, "Don't get to far ahead of us!" He too, started sprinting after Davis. As he got closer he saw a Drimogemon break through the ground, grab, Davis and Veemon, and drop beneath the surface once again.

Yolei and Codi were running right behind him, but failed to notice the digimon,"What happened, did the ground just swallow him up? I'm not sure I like this place."

Kari, Sora, and Izzy were the last to join the group. Sora spoke up, "Did you see what happened Tk? Where did they go?"

Yolei decided to jump in and answer herself, "The ground just opened up and swallowed him."

Kari stepped up closer to Tk and asked again, "Did you see what happened?"

"It was a Drimogemon, he came up and captured both of them before he sunk beneath the surface again," he paused, "This has to be the work of the digimon emperor." Tk's fists tightened and he looked back at the others, "We've gotta find those digi-eggs and fast, otherwise Davis and Veemon might be doomed."

At that Tk started for the forest with the rest of the digidestined right behind him. They moved quickly through the forest following their digivices in hopes of finding the eggs quickly. Kari stopped everyone, "Okay, we have to be really close, do you digimon know of any buildings or caves or anything around here?"

"No, not really, just the temple," replied Tentomon.

"What temple?" asked Tk, Kari, Sora, and Izzy simultaneously. Tentomon showed the digidestined the way and once they made it to the top of the long flight of stairs, they found two digieggs. One was emblazoned with the crest of love and the other with the crest of knowledge. Seeing as the crests belonged to them, Sora and Izzy stepped up to try picking up the eggs. The eggs seemed to heavy though and they couldn't lift them. The four original digidestined all looked at each other remembering what Tai said about the digiegg of courage.

"Yolei, Cody, why don't you two try lifting them," Izzy directed. The two younger kids stepped forward and prepared to lift something really heavy. Just like Davis did the day before the two children nearly fell backwards because of how light the eggs seemed to them. All of a sudden out popped two digimon ready to meet their new partners.

"Well, howdy there Cody, I'm Armadillomon and I'm your new partner."

Cody bowed politely to the digimon and replied, "It's wonderful to make your acquaintance."

"Yolei? I assume. I believe we are going to be working together from here on out, I'm Hawkmon."

Yolei seemed a bit uncomfortable, "Um, hi, but I'm not sure how much we'll be working together."

Hawkmon was stunned, "Huh? What do you mean? Don't you like me?"

"You seem like a really nice digimon, but I'm not so sure I ever wanna come back here."

"What do you mean Yolei?" asked Sora kindly.

"It's just that this place is a whole lot scarier than I thought. It seems like this place is really dangerous. I don't know if I can handle it."

Sora smiled at her softly, "You remind me of a friend of mine named Mimi, she didn't like the danger and the fighting either, but she realized she had to fight because she wanted to protect all the innocent digimon out there."

"Yeah, Yolei, you're a digidestined now, and that means you're part of the team that has been chosen to protect the digital world," added Kari.

"But what if I don't wanna be apart of that team?" she whined.

"Listen, Yolei, I know its scary and you don't really know what to do or how you can possibly help save an entire world, but think of it this way. There are thousands of innocent digimon just like Hawkmon here, that need your help," Sora added.

Yolei turned her attention to Hawkmon, "You need my help?"

"Yes, we all do, you're a digidestined," replied Hawkmon.

"Then I guess, I'm in," Yolei stated as she threw her fist in the air.

"But why was I chosen? I'm so much younger than the rest of you. What can I possibly contribute to the digital world that the others can't? Why does the digital world need my help when there are so many powerful creatures around?" asked Cody.

"Well for one thing, I think you bring a certain level of curiosity to the team. You remind me a lot of myself. You are a thinker just like I was, you'd rather think out a problem and make a plan rather than just jumping right into. That's certainly a quality worthy of a digidestined," Izzy paused and looked back at a smiling Tk. "And about your age, never let that get in the way. On our first adventure, there was a kid much younger than the rest of us. We tried to protect him and keep him out of harms way, but in the end he was one of the bravest and most important members of our entire group."

Tk's smile drooped a bit as Cody turned his attention to him, "Tk? You were the youngest of the last group? How did you manage?"

Tk smiled again, "I learned to trust myself more and not always rely on the older kids. We are all capable of greater things than we could ever imagine; we just need to challenge ourselves so that we can tap into that potential."

Cody thought about that for a few seconds, "Alright, I'm in."

"Great because now we've got another member of our team to go save. Let's go find him," ordered Tk as the group took off after the blinking dot on the digivice.

Davis had been knocked unconscious when he was captured. As he awoke, he found himself chained to the side of a cliff in some kind of gorge. He struggled against his chains at first until he realize that breaking free would me plummeting 25 feet to the bottom. He began to look around and realized that Veemon wasn't with him. "Veemon! Where are you buddy?" he called out hoping his partner was nearby.

"Oh I don't think he'll be responding at the moment," sneered Ken evilly from his perch atop the opposite cliff, "He's a bit tied up at the moment." At that second Davis noticed Veemon chained up higher on the same cliff he was on.

"Veemon! Are you okay?"

"Yes, Davis, I'm fine, but I really don't like this guy," Veemon said indicating the digimon emperor.

"Oh my, you've hurt my feelings, Veemon. What's not to like about me?" asked Ken as his evil grin widened.

"Let us go, you jerk, what did we ever do to you?" screamed Davis angrily.

"Come now, Davis, you invaded my world and started freeing my slaves and you ask me what you've done to me." His cool and collected demeanor began to break as he screamed out, "This is my world and I never gave you or your friends permission to be here." He collected himself again before continuing, "And now, you're going to have to watch while your blue friend here becomes another one of my slaves."

"Not while I'm still breathing," Davis yelled, "Veemon, digi-armor energize!" Nothing happened and Davis looked a bit scared.

"I think you might be needing these to make that little trick work," said the Emperor while holding up Davis's digimon and D-Terminal.

"Hey! Give those back."

"Now why would I do that, when I can just enslave your friend and make him destroy you and all your little friends." At that the Digimon Emperor threw one of his dark rings in Veemon's direction.

Davis was terrified, he might lose his new friend before they really had a chance to get to know each other. But just as the ring was about to reach Veemon, Davis heard some call, "Tempest Wing" and the ring was destroyed by a red beam.

The emperor was stunned, "What happened?"

"Don't worry Davis, we've got your back," Yelled Yolei as she rode in on Halsemon.

The wall around Davis began to shake and soon Digmon broke through the wall and grabbed Davis. "I've got you Davis, now let's get you back down to the ground." Digmon jumped to the ground as Halsemon had to fend off an attack from Snimon.

The Emperor ordered Drimogemon and Mojyamon to attack as well just as the rest of the digi-destined confronted him on the cliff. Gatomon sped forward to attack him, but was blocked by Wormmon. Instead Tk ran forward himself, "What gives you the right to enslave all these innocent digimon?"

Ken took a defensive stance and responded, "Well, I am a superior being and therefore I can enslave them. That's all the right I need." Tk swung at his face but he dodged the blow and responded by kneeing Tk in the stomach. Instead of trying another punch, Tk grabbed the emperor by the waist and threw him to the ground. Davis's digivice and D-terminal fell to the ground near Kari. She picked them up and gave them to Patamon to return to Davis.

Tk and the Emperor continued to wrestle as Veemon digivolved to Flamedramon and the three armor digimon were able to overpower their opponents and destroy the dark rings. The emperor managed to free himself from Tk's grasp and ordered an Airdramon in to fly him away.

Kari rushed to Tk's side as the remaining members of the team joined them on the cliff top. "Tk are you okay? That was either really brave or really stupid."

"Yeah I'm fine, you should see the other guy," he responded with a sly grin. Kari and the whole group laughed at the joke, except for Davis who missed the whole wrestling match.

"What's so funny? What happened?" he asked trying to figure out why he missed out on the fun.

"Tk totally manhandled the emperor and was able to get your digivice back, it was way cool," Yolei said gushing.

"Yeah, he was a real hero," added Kari.

Davis was mad that Kari seemed so impressed with Tk, "Well I could have taken him on too, only if I was fighting him, there's no way I'd let him get away. Isn't that right Veemon?"

"Oh yeah totally, you'd really give that Emperor guy something to think about," encouraged Veemon.

"Well regardless of the heroics, I'm just glad we're all safe," Sora interrupted with a smile, "We should all probably head home now, we don't wanna be late for dinner."

"Sora's right, let's get out of here while we still can," added Izzy, "At least we were able to free a few digimon from the emperor's control."

"Yeah, and Yolei and I found our digimon parnters," Cody added as he hugged his new friend Armadillomon.

The group made their way to the nearest gate and said goodbye to Tk and Patamon. The rest of the group, excluding Tentomon and Biyomon returned to the computer lab at Odaiba elementary. Tk and Patamon went through the gate next and found themselves back in Tk's bedroom.

As the big group began to untangle itself in the computer lab, Tai returned with the teacher and surprisingly Matt as well. "Well boys this was quite a surprise to see both of you here together and to think you both had girl problems at the same time. Anytime you boys have problems you can always come and talk to me."

"Yeah thanks, we'll be sure to do that," Tai replied as both he and Matt rubbed the back of their heads. The teacher excused himself as he had to get back and pack up his office for the night.

"Good thing he didn't notice the digimon," Izzy said relieved, "Why are you guys here anyway?"

"I don't know, we just followed you guys up to the Tv and now we're here," replied DemiVeemon.

"Why are you so small dude?" asked Davis.

"We revert to our in-training modes in the real world to conserve energy," replied Poromon.

"So, guys, how did it go?" asked Matt quietly.

"It went great, we kicked that digimon emperor's ass," cheered Davis before he realized something, "Wait a second, who are you?"

"Sorry guys, this is my best friend and Tk's brother, Matt," replied Tai, "He was with us on our original adventure in the digital world."

"Wow, that's great, I'm Cody and I'm sure we could all learn a lot from you like we've learned from Izzy, Sora, and Matt," said Cody pleasantly.

They all started heading home, Sora, Yolei, and Cody lived in a different direction and split off from the rest of the group. Davis and Kari walked ahead of the older boys as they chatted a bit about the day.

"So, Izzy, how did today really go?" asked Tai hoping for an interpretation of Davis's bravado.

"Really, it went quite well. Davis was captured almost immediately, but then Tk took firm control of the group and in the end we were able to rescue Davis and free a few more digimon from the Emperor's control."

"Wait, Tk, took control? Are you sure about that?" asked Matt.

"Yeah, you would have been really proud of him. He lead us to the new digi-eggs for Yolei and Cody and then when we confronted the Emperor he jumped in and attacked him. He's the reason we were able to get Davis's digivice and D-terminal back. It was kind of hard to believe that it was really Tk."

"No kidding, that's interesting, it seems like returning to the digi-world has brought out the me in him," said Tai proudly.

"Whatever, Tai, my brother's always had it in him," Matt responded with a light punch to Tai's shoulder. "So Izzy, what do you think of the new team? Do you think they can handle it?"

Izzy looked at them with worry, "I'm not so sure, Yolei and Cody don't seem all that comfortable with their new roles as digidestined and Davis is too impulsive. I'm begining to think that Tk might also be a part of the new group. His digivice was able to open a digi-port and Gennai said only the new digivices would be able to do that."

"So your theory is that Tk's digivice opened it because he's supposed to be a part of the new team," Matt concluded.

"Yep, and I think if he's on the team than they will probably be okay, because the way he handled himself today was quite impressive."

"Plus, we can always join them and give advice even if we can't do much to help in a fight," added Tai excitedly.


	4. Making the Team

That night in Tk's apartment Patamon spoke with his partner, "Boy, Tk, what got into you. I've never known you to take the lead like that. And to attack the emperor like that, I thought my partner had died and been replaced by Tai."

"I'm not sure what came over me, I guess I just thought somebody had to take control. We couldn't just let him get away with kidnapping Davis."

"Well whatever it is that came over you, I liked it. The emperor won't stand a chance if that's who he's got to fight against. You were awesome."

"Thanks buddy, but it was no big deal." At that Tk went out to the kitchen and fixed he and Patamon some dinner. His mother was working late yet again. He was used to it though, he'd gone days without seeing his mother before and he was sure it would happen again. The two best friends enjoyed a nice meal and went to bed early.

When Tk woke up the next day, he woke up and prepared for the day. He remembered last minute that tryouts for the basketball team were that afternoon after school. As he got ready to go he sent a quick message to Kari to let her know that he wouldn't be able to go to the digital world that day, but to go ahead without him if everyone else wanted to.

At that he ran off to school, hoping he could make it there on time. He barely made it and prepared himself for another day of boredom. He didn't really like school, he was a pretty smart kid, though he didn't really work very hard at school. He just naturally understood a lot of things. He learned things quickly and therefore school was often very boring to him. Perhaps that's why he enjoyed the digital world so much, no matter what they faced in the digital world it was always a challenge. School just wasn't much of one anymore.

Oh well, he was pretty sure basketball was gonna be another way to challenge himself and he was excited to start playing again. The day went quick and before too long, Tk was at basketball tryouts. Kari had messaged him and said that none of the rest of them could go right after school either, so nobody was going to the digital world.

He didn't really know anyone else trying out except for Ken. He approached Ken and said, "Hey, Ken you excited to try out?"

"Yes, it should be fun, but I mostly play basketball to keep in shape for soccer," the slender genius said quietly.

"Yeah, that's right, I heard you were really good at soccer. I'm sure you're pretty great at basketball too."

"I'm alright I guess."

Tk quickly learned that Ken was more than alright at basketball. He struggled with the shooting drills, but he was an excellent passer and by far the best ball handler there. It became quite clear that he would likely make the team and probably be the starting point guard.

Of course that was nothing compared to how well Tk played. He was fairly tall for his age but wasn't the tallest on the team. He easily scored close to the basket and was quite accurate with his outside shot as well. It became clear that he was the team's best shooter and would likely play on the outside with Ken. The rest of the players and the coach were all very impressed by all of his skills.

Near the end of the tryout they all split up and played some quick games of 3 on 3. Ken and Tk were put on the same team and they dominated everyone. Ken delivered precision passes and Tk took them with ease to the basket for two points. After their last game they walked off the court together, "Wow, Ken we make a great team. You're an awesome point guard. It should be a lot of fun playing together."

Ken couldn't believe it, but he did have a lot of fun playing with the blond digidestined and smiled back, "Yeah that was fun."

Tk made his way home after tryouts and finally saw his mother at home. "Hey mom, your home," Tk said, a bit surprised.

"Yes, I am, but only for a little while, I've gotta go out and cover an event tonight for the paper."

"Of course you do. Hey mom, I had basketball tryouts today, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna make the team."

"That's great Tk, you're a great player, I'm sure you'll do great."

For some reason nothing sounded more insincere than when someone uses the same adjective over and over again. He got the feeling that his mom wasn't really involved in the conversation. Like her mind was elsewhere, probably on her work.

"So when do you have to head to your event?" Tk asked sadly.

"Hmm?" she asked clearly not paying complete attention to her son, "Oh sorry, um really any minute now, the press have to be there early. I bought some chicken for you, its in the fridge when you're ready for it." At that she made her way back to her office to get her computer.

Tk just stood there and whispered, "Okay, goodbye, Mom," before heading into his room to hang out with Patamon. Tk ate his chicken early that night and went to bed again.

That day after school there was a second day of tryouts. The coach had excused some of the boys who had either already secured a spot on the team or had failed to impress at all. Tk decided he wanted to go anyway just to be able to play some more. He told Kari he couldn't make it again and she replied that they weren't sure if they were going to go at all.

Tk took notice that Ken wasn't there. He assumed the coach had excused him. There were a few other decent players, but he didn't have as much fun playing as he did when he played with Ken the day before. As he sat down to take a break he heard his phone ringing in his bag. He pulled it out and saw that it was Matt calling him and he answered it.

"Tk, are you going to the digital world today?" asked Matt quickly.

"I hadn't planned on it, why what's wrong?"

"My digivice started beeping I think Gabumon's in trouble."

Tk startled at that, "Oh no! Do you want to come over, I'm sure I can get us into the digital world."

"That's the thing Tk, my band has a gig like right now. If it just involved me I'd drop it in a heartbeat, but I just can't leave the guys out to dry. I was hoping that you would go for me and help Gabumon. I'll feel a whole lot better if you're there. I need you to do this for me, buddy. I can't stand that I can't be there for Gabumon."

"Sure thing, Matt, you know you can count on me. I'll see if the others can join me, who knows what we'll be up against."

"Thanks, little bro, I knew I could count on you. Message me when you know something."

"Will do Matt, I've gotta head home so I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Tk, and be careful."

"Always," replied Tk and at that he hung up, grabbed his bag and ran for the exit. He pulled out his D-Terminal while he ran to send a message to Kari. He opened it up to find that he had one waiting for him from her. "Tk, we just discovered a distress call from one of the partner digimon, can you make it to the digital world?"

He awkwardly responded while trying not to run into things as he went, "I know, its Gabumon, I'm on my way now, I'll see you guys there." In about ten quick minutes he was home and ready to enter the digital world. He filled Patamon in on what was going on with Gabumon and pulled out his digivice.

He quickly found himself in the digital world. Not far from where he entered he saw the other digidestined huddled around something on the ground. He got closer and realized that it was Gabumon. "Gabumon, are you okay?"

"Is that Matt?" Gabumon asked clearly in a daze.

"No, its Tk. Matt couldn't make it. He sent me to make sure you were alright."

"I knew Matt wouldn't forget about me," said the digimon, "I feel better already." He started to get up when Davis began to speak to him.

"What happened, Gabumon, who did this to you?"

"It was the digimon emperor, he attacked this little town and put all of my Gazimon friends in jail."

"I knew it, that jerk, we better go break those guys out of prison!" cried Davis as he threw his fist into the air excitedly.

"Wait Davis, we should think this through it might be a trap," Tk said before he turned his attention back towards Gabumon, "Is there anything else you can tell us?"

"Yeah, he put up this weird black spire thing in town and told us that as long as it was there he would control the whole area."

Davis was getting upset. He didn't like that Tk got all the credit for being the hero last time they were in the digital world and he wanted to prove to Kari that he too could be a hero. "That's it, we should bust those Gazimon out of prison and destroy that stupid tower, Veemon are you ready?" cried Davis as he prepared to have Veemon digivolve.

"Wait Davis!" yelled Tk. "We can't go rushing into this. We don't know what we're up against. It might be better if we figure out a way to sneak in and discover a bit more about the enemy. We might even be able to free the Gazimon without a fight."

Davis was furious this time, "You know what Ts, I'm tired of you always dissing on me. Who put you in charge anyway? Just because _you_ don't have a digimon that can digivolve, doesn't mean we should run away from a fight. Veemon and I could take that whole tower down ourselves and take out whatever digimon slaves might stand in our way." By the end of his rant he found himself mere inches away from Tk's face.

Tk was starting to get upset as well, he didn't like feeling useless and especially didn't like Davis pointing out how useless he was. "Not every problem can be solved by fighting. Stealth might be our best bet, especially since, as you so arrogantly pointed out, we're not at full strength, only three of our digimon can digivolve. Sometimes its best to use your head more than your fists."

"Oh yeah, well I'll show you how I like to use my fists!" yelled Davis as he took a swing at Tk. His fist connected with Tk's face and the boy took a step back before he lunged back at Davis, tackling him to the ground. They started wrestling around and at one point Tk had pinned Davis long enough punch him in the cheek. They rolled around for a minute or two before Kari screamed at the top of her lungs.

"ENOUGH!" everyone stopped when they heard her and she took a few deep breaths before continuing, "This fighting is accomplishing nothing. We've got digimon to save and you two idiots are rolling around fighting over how we should save them. Tk, Davis is right, likely we will have to fight in order to free those digimon."

Davis interrupted with a "Ha!" as he and Tk got up.

But Kari continued, "And Davis, it might be in our best interest to get inside and see what's going on. We'll have a better chance to win if we know what we're up against."

"You're right Kari, I'm sorry I was being such an idiot," apologized Tk.

"Yeah me too, I'll do whatever you want to do Kari," added Davis.

"Wow, boys can be real lunkheads," said Yolei bitterly.

"Hey guys, I think I just had an idea," cried Cody from the top of a nearby hill. Cody had seen some nearby trees with black pod type things hanging from them. They decided to use them as fake dark rings. Some of their digimon wore then and escorted the children and the rest of the digimon right into the city. They didn't look a whole lot like dark rings, but the Veggiemon guards weren't too bright and didn't seem to notice. They managed to find their way all the way up to the prison before they had to take out a few guards in order to free the Gazimon.

They went to leave the prison only to see a large group of Veggiemon heading their way, "Great idea guys, now how are we supposed to get out."

"Well, we could go out the back way and go up to the top of the hill," suggested Gabumon, "You guys wanted to destroy the spire anyway didn't you?"

They ran out the back way only to run into more Veggiemon. They managed to get around them, but the group was separated. Davis, Yolei, Cody, their digimon partners, Gabumon, and all the Gazimon found a road that led straight to the top of the city. Tk and Kari were forced down a side road that led to some weird cave in the hillside.

When Davis and the other reached the top of the city they saw that the only way down was over a cliff. "This is just great I knew we should have just stood and fought from the beginning. Now we're trapped. Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?"

"You'll be more than trapped once I'm through with you," said RedVeggiemon as he cornered the digidestined at the top of the hill.

Veemon could tell that his partner was down and decided to jump in and try to save the day. "Don't worry Davis, I can take this guy down." Veemon ran towards the champion digimon and was immediately hit hard by the creature's roots. He got up slowly, "Don't worry Davis, we'll beat this guy no problem just give me a couple minutes.

Davis couldn't believe what Veemon was doing, it seemed so stupid. Why would Veemon take beating like that? He couldn't watch as his little buddy just got hit again and again by the angry vegetable.

Meanwhile, Kari and Tk had managed to hide in that cave and avoided being seen by the searching Veggiemon. "Tk, we're separated from the others, what are we gonna do? Gatomon and Patamon can't even digivolve. We'll be in real trouble if they find us."

Kari seemed really scared and even though Tk didn't know what was gonna happen he knew he had to be strong. After all, he had promised Kari that he would protect her and he was determined to be her rock. "Don't worry Kari, we'll figure a way out of this. Besides these Veggiemon are weaklings, I bet Patamon could take them all on himself and we've got Gatomon too, it'll be okay."

Gatomon had decided to investigate further into the cave while Patamon stayed by the entrance to watch out for enemies. "Hey guys, I found something back here. They look like digi-eggs," Gatomon yelled from around the corner.

Kari and Tk got up to investigate as well and sure enough, around the corner were two digi-eggs. One had the crest of light and the other the crest of hope. "Are these our digi-eggs? But we've already got our digimon," wondered Kari.

"Well you'll never know unless you try to pick them up," Patamon declared as he came up behind them.

Tk started forward, "Here goes nothing," he said as he bent down to pick it up and it came up with ease. The digi-egg glowed along with Tk's pocket, he pulled out his digivice and saw that it was transforming into one just like the new kids had. "I guess this means, I'm one of the new digidestined too, alright!" Tk said cheerily.

Kari stepped forward and lifted her own egg and she too got a brand new digivice.

"This is great, now Gatomon and I can armor digivolve and get us out of here," cheered Patamon.

"Yeah, let's do it!" cried Tk as he and Kari both activated the eggs and Patamon and Gatomon armor digivolved to Pegasusmon and Nefertimon respectively.

Back at the top of the mountain, Veemon was still getting quite the beating. He had been backed up against the black control spire and was being bashed into it. Cracks started to form at the base of the spire and Davis couldn't take seeing his friend be beaten like that. He rushed forward and tried to get between RedVeggiemon and his partner. Gabumon ran after him trying to get him back to safety, but Davis was thrown backwards by the RedVeggiemon's attack and his digivice fell out of his hands towards Gabumon.

A bright light began to glow from the digivice and Gabumon somehow digivolved to Garurumon. Garurumon charged forward and attacked the RedVeggiemon easily destroying the dark ring that had enslaved him.

Just as the battle was finishing up, Tk and Kari flew up on the backs of their newly digivolved digimon. "Hey guys, is everything okay?" called Kari happily as Nefertimon landed.

"Yeah everything's great thanks to Garurumon," replied Yolei.

"How did you manage to digivolve Garurumon?" asked Tk, "I mean Matt's not here and nobody's been able to digivolve since the emperor moved in."

"I'm not sure, I was overcome by the light of Davis's digivice and I digivolved," answered Garurumon.

Cody had made his way over to the control spire. "I wonder if the cracks in the control spire have anything to do with Garurumon's digivolution."

"What do you mean Cody?" asked Kari.

"Well Gabumon told us that the digimon emperor the spire would help him control the whole area. Maybe cracking the tower shorted it out and allowed Garurumon to digivolve with the help of Davis's digivice."

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense," said Tk to himself, "I wonder if completely destroying it would release the digimon under from the power of the dark rings."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," said Kari as she and Nefertimon took to the air again, followed closely by Tk and Pegasusmon.

"Hurry up guys, the Veggiemon are regrouping and I think they're gonna attack again," yelled Davis as they took flight.

Pegasusmon lined up for the attack and shouted, "Equus beam!" as a green light shot out of the front of his head. The attack was a direct hit creating a gash in the bottom of the spire.

Nefertimon flew in behind him and shot her tablet at the gash calling out, "Rosetta Stone!" The tablet his the gash and cracked the spire clean through. It fell to the ground with a crash and the Veggiemon were freed from the control of the dark rings.

"Way to go guys! You did it!" cheered Yolei as Tk and Kari landed and their digimon returned to their usual forms.

"Yeah that was amazing, good work you two," added Cody.

The children decided to it was best for them to head home. They asked Garurumon to stay and protect the village, to which he whole-heartedly agreed. On the walk back to the TV it was clear that Davis and Tk had no desire to talk to each other. Yolei, Kari, and Cody could tell it was going to be hard to get the two boys to work together.

When Tk returned home he quickly gave Matt a call and told him that Gabumon was safe.

"So you're saying he was able to digivolve withough me? How did that happen?" asked Matt.

" I think it had something to do with Davis's digivice. They are powerful little devices. Remember how his exposure to Tai's digivice helped Leomon digivolve. I think it might have had something to do with that."

"Yeah I guess that makes sense. So did anything else interesting happen?" Tk sat there deciding whether or not he wanted to tell his brother about his fight with Davis. He decided against it, but his extended silence betrayed him. "What is it Tk? I can tell something's wrong."

"Its nothing really. Davis and I got into a bit of a fight is all, no big deal."

"Wow, its like Tai and I all over again. Don't worry bro, you'll probably be best friends in no time."

"I doubt that Matt, he's such an arrogant jerk I can't stand him. I'm not sure how we're gonna be able to work together."

"Well you're gonna have to figure it out, because I have a feeling the fight against the digimon emperor is only just beginning."


	5. The Games Begin

The following few weeks were a bit rocky. Davis and Tk rarely saw eye to eye, but they managed to put that behind them when they had enemies to face. They had gone back to the digital world a few days a week after school for three weeks. They rarely ran into Digimon Emperor, instead facing his slaves and destroying control spires. Unfortunately they made very little progress. It seemed the spires were being built faster than they could destroy them.

Izzy had found a map of the digital world after examining the new digivices. The map showed what areas of the digital world had been taken over by the Digimon Emperor. That allowed their progress to improve as the digidestined could enter directly into an area with a spire and destroy it quickly before returning to the real world and find a new spire controlled area to go to.

However despite that new advantage they were unable to keep up with how quickly the spires were being built. One day during lunch at school Davis and Kari discussed new strategies to stop the Emperor's advances. "We've gotta go after the Emperor directly. We're never gonna be able to destroy enough spires to make a difference. The only way to get rid of the spires is to stop the source of them."

"I agree, that makes total sense, Davis, but it doesn't change the fact that we don't know where the Digimon Emperor is. We can't stop, what we can't find. The spires are easy to find and fairly easy to destroy. It just makes sense to do what we can while we can."

"I know you're right Kari, its just frustrating. I really wish we knew how to find him. You know I bet if we knew who he was it would be a lot easier to find him in our world."

"Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that. That makes sense, but we don't know who he is so it doesn't really matter." Davis growled and Kari could tell that her friend was really frustrated. She decided a change of subject was in order, "So are you excited about your first basketball game? It should be a lot of fun."

Davis brightened up a little bit at that, "Yeah, it will be fun. I wasn't sure how I was gonna like basketball, I decided to play just to keep me in shape for soccer season, but I really like it."

"That's great I can't wait to watch you play!" she responded cheerily.

Davis looked up with a huge grin on his face, "You mean you're gonna come and watch me play?"

"Of course, silly, you're my friend. Plus you're playing Tk's team so I get to watch him too." Davis sulked a little after he heard that, she was going to see Tk play. He really couldn't stand that guy and his hatred must have been visible on his face. "Don't get mad Davis, I'm going to see you too, its just nice that I can see two of my friends play at the same time."

"Whatever," he decided to move on. Little did Kari know the main reason Davis had joined the basketball team was because Tk had and he wanted to be able to compete against him on a battlefield for a change. Basketball was just a lot safer than an all out digi-fight. "The game tonight should be really fun though. I guess Tamachi's really good because of Tk and that genius kid."

"Yeah, Tk said Ken was really good, but I guess it makes sense, isn't he a really good soccer player too?"

"Yep, he led his team to the championship last year, but we didn't get a chance to play them. I would have stopped that smart kid in his tracks," Davis bragged proudly.

Kari just chuckled at his bravado, "I have no doubt that you would have Davis."

Davis had gotten really tired of having to take orders from Tk in the digital world. It wasn't official or anything, but Tk had kind of become the leader of the digidestined and Davis didn't like it. He wanted to be the leader, but everyone seemed to agree with Tk's ideas so he became the de facto leader. Davis had good ideas too and he knew it, but he couldn't convince anyone else of it. Regardless he was ready to put Tk in his place, even if it was just on the basketball court.

Davis had been practicing hard the past few weeks, but it was quite clear that basketball was not his sport. However he played hard and was a good defender so the coach put him on the team. Davis knew Tk was probably better than him, but he wanted to play against him and get in his face. A hard foul or two weren't out of the question either.

The only problem with his plan was that his coach didn't wanna play him. He made the team because of his energy and hard work. He turned that energy and hard work into good defense and that's what the coach saw in him, but that didn't mean he had enough skill to play regularly.

He sat the whole first quarter of the game and Ken and Tk dominated. Ken directed the whole team like a general leading his troops into battle and he delivered perfect passes right where they needed to be. Tk was unstoppable, he made every shot he took and blew by anyone that tried to stop him. In the huddle at the quarter break, Davis approached his coach about playing, "Coach, put me in, I can stop him."

"Davis I know your energy will be there, but we need a big comeback at this point and for that we need some offense. I'm gonna go back to the starters, we can't comeback without some offense."

"Yeah but coach, we also can't comeback if Tk scores every time he touches the ball either. Put me in coach, I can stop him."

The coach looked up and saw the determination in his eyes and decided to go with it, "Alright, Davis, you're in. We're counting on you."

Davis jumped off the bench and screamed, "Oh yeah, I got this coach!"

The second quarter started and Davis put his game face on. He was determined he was gonna take Tk down a notch or two. His team was down by 10 points and it seemed likely that they would lose no matter what so he was just gonna leave it all out there and try to stop Tk.

His team started with the ball, and it was clear that Davis was a bit lost offensively. He didn't really know the plays very well and he'd often mix them up in practice. In game, that didn't change, he wasn't sure where he was supposed to be. He cut at the wrong time and almost ran into a teammate causing the pass to miss its target and the opposing team took the ball back.

Defense is really where he felt at home. It was simple, he only had one thing to remember, keep his man from scoring. And when his man was possibly his least favorite person on earth, he was definitely pumped to play him. He wanted to prove to himself as much as anybody else that he could defy expectations and be very good

Ken brought the ball up the court slowly and studied the defense. He saw a lane to the basket and made his move, quickly getting by his defender. The center for Odaiba's team collapsed in to stop him. He passed the ball out to Tk in the corner. Davis had chased him around a screen and got to him in time to keep him from getting an open shot. Tk hesitated before lifting up and shooting the ball. Davis stayed with him and kept a hand in his face. Tk's shot looked good but it fell slightly short, bouncing off the rim right into Davis's hands. Eager to make up for his last mistake Davis started dribbling towards the other end of the court, only to have the ball stolen by Tk after a few steps.

Tk took the ball straight to the basket. Davis followed and out of frustration he jumped up to block the shot. The problem was that Tk was between him and the ball. He landed on top of Tk knocking both boys to the ground. Davis was whistled for a foul and Tk got a couple foul shots.

The game continued on and it became clear that Davis was more than capable of defending Tk. While Tk still scored here and there with Davis guarding him, his shots became much more difficult and he missed most of them. Davis was learning quickly that he should do his best to stay out of the way on offense and not try to do to much and it helped his team slowly narrowed the lead to 6 by the half.

The second half started poorly for Davis's team. While he had mostly contained Tk, Ken was still directing the team with ease and he managed to lead his team on a five to nothing run to start the second half. It was looking like they were going to run away with the game until Davis decided to get a bit more aggressive on defense.

He started keeping one eye on Ken while defending Tk and managed on a couple of occasions to intercept a pass from Ken. On one of those steals he race down the court and easily laid the ball into the basket and on the other he passed ahead to a teammate who managed to do the same. By the end of the third quarter the Tamachi team's lead was back down to 4 and it was largely due to the energetic and aggressive play of Davis.

He was rewarded with a lot of playing time, in fact, the only time he got a break was when Tk got one as well. Davis was really starting to get into it too. He liked that even though he wasn't all that skilled his enthusiasm and energy was enough to make him a big part of the team. It also didn't hurt that he got to push Tk around a lot.

Speaking of which Tk started the fourth quarter by backing Davis down towards the basket. He faked to his left and spun back to his right to release his shot. It fooled Davis for a second and in his attempt to recover, Davis body checked Tk as he blocked the shot. Tk got up seething and got in Davis's face about it. He didn't appreciate how rough Davis had played the whole game. The ref had to come over and make sure nothing happened between the two boys. Tk took and made both his foul shots.

With only a minute remaining, Tamachi was leading by 5 and Odaiba had the ball. Davis had spent most of his time on offense staying in the corner out of everyone else's way. It worked in his favor this time as he noticed a hole in the defense right under the basket. He cut straight to that spot and caught a pass from his vigilant teammate. He spun towards the basket and made the shot before Tk could recover and block his shot.

Then on the defensive end Davis managed to sneak around Tk and steal the pass intended for him. In the process he knocked Tk to the ground, but wasn't called for a foul. He took it the full length of the court and made the lay up with thirty seconds remaining. His team managed to get the ball back again down only one point with 5 seconds left to play. A pass was tipped and Davis ended up with the ball in his hands. He faked a quick pass and then pulled up for the shot at the last second. As it left his hands the whole crowd went quiet as it started up towards the basket, but out of nowhere Tk managed to recover and flew up to knock the ball out of bounds as the buzzer sounded. Davis was crushed, he thought he had a chance to win the game but it just didn't happen.

His coach and all his teammates encouraged him and told him that he played a great game, but all he could think about was the fact that Tk had gotten the last laugh in their epic battle. He left the gym that night mad and frustrated. Sure he'd had a lot of fun playing the game, but he had hoped he could prove something to Kari and himself. He didn't like being upstaged by Tk all the time and hoped the game would be different.

When the whole group of digidestined, both younger and older decided to team up the next day after school to try to make some real headway in knocking down the spires, he wasn't all that excited to be apart of it. He just never felt like an important part of the team and wanted more people to notice him for his contributions. Instead they all fawned over Tk. Even the older kids seemed impressed with Tk.

After a couple hours of traveling around destroying control spires, they regrouped at the computer room at Odaiba elementary. Izzy noticed a spire by itself in the middle of uncontrolled areas. He suggested we try to go in and take that one out before we called it a night. Most of the older kids had things to do so Davis had a suggestion, "Us younger kids will take this one down, you guys can head out, it shouldn't take us too long." They all agreed and started heading out.

The younger kids opened the portal and soon found themselves in a strange domed city. They saw the spire in the distance and headed that way. However the city was filled with hundreds of Guardromon controlled by dark rings. They were overwhelmed and decided to get out of there and figure out a new plan of attack. The attacks of the Guardromon exploded all around them as they ran and they barely made it back to the TV before they were overwhelmed. The TV was destroyed just as Tk and Patamon made it through the portal.

As they untangled themselves from the pile they fell in they realized that Kari must have been left behind. "Aw man, we've gotta go back and get her!" cried Davis.

"We can't," replied Patamon, "I saw that the TV was destroyed after Tk and I made it through."

"Well we can't just leave her there!" Davis said, "This is all your fault, T.A.! You should have let Kari run ahead of you." Davis grabbed Tk by his shirt and pushed him up against the wall. Tk just kept looking at the ground quietly, as if he didn't notice Davis's attack.

"Calm down Davis, it was no one's fault," Cody tried to reason with Davis.

Tk spoke up quietly, "No, he's right. It's all my fault. I should have been looking out for her better than I was. I should have been there for her." He broke free from Davis's grip and practically pushed Yolei away from the computer as he began to look for a digiport close to where they just left.

"I guess I could have looked out for her better, too" Davis said realizing how silly he was being.

"I could have too, we shouldn't blame anyone. We need to figure out how we can best help her right now," replied Cody.

Tk stood up quickly, "I'm going in after her, there's another digiport a couple miles outside the city. I'll just go find her from there," and at that he lifted his digivice to the computer getting sucked in by the computer along with Patamon.

The other kids seemed a bit stunned by his rash action before Davis spoke up, "If he thinks I'm just gonna sit around and let him be the hero, then he's dumber than he looks, let's go DemiVeemon!" He too was sucked in.

Yolei stood up ready to follow before Cody pulled her back explaining that they needed to figure out how to cover for the other three with their families, after all, it was almost dinner time. She agreed and Cody went to call Tai and Matt to tell them what happened.

Meanwhile Tk and Davis found themselves in the middle of a desert in the digital world. "Great idea, T.S. Now I'm stuck wandering through a desert with you. That's exactly how I wanted to spend my afternoon," Davis exclaimed sarcastically.

"I didn't ask you to follow me," replied Tk as he looked at his digivice and started walking in the direction of the city, "I could have handled this on my own."

"Oh what do you really think I was gonna let you be the hero, no way, man."

Tk shook his head, "Its not about being a hero, I just need to make sure that Kari's safe."

"Whatever, dude, I don't wanna talk to you, let's just shut up and get going."

"That's perfectly fine with me," Tk added as he pushed forward. Their digimon paused and looked at each other still concerned about the poor relationship the two boys had together. They continued on through the desert for quite some time and it seemed like they made very little progress.

Davis finally spoke up to break lengthy silence the two had shared, "This is ridiculous, why don't we just armor digivolve and get to the city that much faster? Kari'll be dead by the time we get there at this rate." He said the last bit as a joke, but it didn't go over very well.

Tk turned quickly with a fiery anger burning in his eyes as he grabbed Davis by his shirt violently, "Don't even joke about that!" His tempered cooled a bit as he saw the fear and surprise in Davis's eyes. "Kari will be fine for a while, she knows how to hide if it comes to that. We need our digimon at full strength when we get there. Otherwise we'll have no chance to save her."

Tk loosened his grip and turned back to continue forward. Davis looked at the digimon, still a bit stunned, before he followed after Tk. They walked in silence for a little while longer and Davis couldn't help but focus on Tk. Tk's violent reaction to his joke had shocked him and made him reconsider all his preconceptions about the blond boy. After continuing on in silence for a while longer Davis decided he wanted to know a bit more about why Tk cared so much for Kari. "You really care about her don't you?"

Tk glanced over his shoulder at Davis, "Yeah, I do, she's one of my best friends and I don't want to see anything happen to her. We've been through too much together."

Davis was curious now, he had heard bits and pieces about the adventures of the original digidestined, but not all of it. So he asked, "Like what?"

Tk stopped and looked at Davis trying to figure out why the boy he'd fought with regularly was suddenly interested in knowing more about him. He saw that Davis was genuine and continued moving forward as he answered, "Well for one, Kari got sick once in the digital world. We were in a city a lot like the one Kari's stuck in now. Tai and Izzy had gone off to find her some medicine, leaving Kari with Sora and I. Before he left Tai asked me to look out for Kari and make sure she stayed safe. Looking back on it, I imagine he just asked that to patronize me and make me feel important, but as a little kid, I didn't get that. I took that heart and I did my best to protect her. We were almost destroyed by a megadramon, but I saw him coming and got us all out of that building."

Davis looked on as the blond boy relived that battle in his mind. "Woah that's intense. Guess you proved to be the hero even back then huh?" Davis mad that last comment with a mix of jealousy and sadness. He understood a bit better why people trusted Tk more than him. Even though they were the same age Tk had a great deal more experience with these things than he did, but that still didn't mean he couldn't contribute.

"Its not about being a hero, Davis. Its always been about the safety of my friends. I don't care what people think of me." Tk looked mad again as he turned back to Davis, "That's why I don't like you very much Davis. You're selfish. You only think about yourself or what the things you do will do for you. You didn't follow me to protect Kari, you followed me so that you could help save the day and look like a hero to Kari. You're using the situation to boost your chances with Kari and I don't like it!" Tk took a deep breath and turned around to begin walking away again, "Until you learn to get over yourself and believe in the people around you, you might be a digidestined, but you won't be a very good one."

Davis wanted to get mad and fight back, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He realized how right Tk had been. He was selfish; he wanted to show off and look like a hero to the rest of the digidestined and especially to Kari. He thought about Kari and what she must be feeling like all alone in that city teeming with the slaves of the digimon emperor. She was probably terrified. How could he think about looking like a hero when she was alone and scared? He hated how right Tk was, but he was determined that he was gonna prove that blonde jerk wrong.

He realized that he had been standing still for quite sometime and that Tk was far ahead of him. He ran forward trying to catch up. As he caught back up he realized that Tk had stopped. He was looking up at the huge city inside the weird glass dome thing. There was one guardromon at the door. "We're gonna have to take the guard out in one shot, we can't have him calling for back up," Tk said matter-of-factly.

"Right, Veemon, you wanna take this one?" Davis said excitedly.

"You betcha, buddy," replied the little blue digimon just as he started armor digivolving. Flamedramon made quick work of the dark ring on the guard and they made their way into the city. Patamon armor digivolved to Pegasusmon as well and the two digimon took their partners and travelled through the city as fast as they could looking for Kari. They finally found her just as Nefertimon was hit out of the sky and reverted back to Gatomon. They quickly took out the dark rings on the approaching guardromon and flew in to make sure Kari was okay.

"Boy, am I glad to see you guys," Kari said as she got up off the ground and waved at the two boys and their digimon.

"I'm just glad you're safe, Kari," said Tk as he ran up and gave her a hug, before quickly pulling away and blushing.

"Uh oh, what's that?" asked Davis as he saw a large man like digimon walking towards them. Smoke was still dissipating from the last attacks of their digimon and they could only make out a silhouette.

"It looks like," Kari started as she began to walk towards the digimon, "It is, its Andromon!" she yelled as she ran towards her old friend.

Tk started after her, "Kari be careful," he called as he saw the digimon come into view. He noticed a dark ring around Andromon's neck, "Watch out Kari, he has a dark ring."

She stopped running suddenly and realized that Andromon was preparing to attack her. Flamedramon jumped in at the last second and pulled her away from the lightning blade attack. "Andromon, don't you recognize me? Its me Kari. We're friends, you helped us defeat Machinedramon and Piedmon."

The digimon studied her intently as if trying to process what she was saying. "I'm sorry Kari, I think he's being controlled, I have to attack him," declared Flamedramon.

At that Flamedramon and Pegasusmon attacked trying to aim for the dark ring. Andromon blocked both attacks and used his Gatling attack to hit the armor digimon and revert them to their rookie stages.

"Kari!" yelled both Tk and Davis as they ran towards her and the large digimon.

"How did he take out both of our digimon like that, this guy is good?" exclaimed Davis as they approached Kari.

"He's an ultimate level digimon, more powerful than any we've come across so far," replied Tk who then turned his attention back to Kari. "Kari get away from him, he doesn't remember. We need to get out of here."

"I know he remembers," she mumbled to herself as she stepped towards the large digimon again.

"Kari, Tk might be right you should listen to him," pleaded Gatomon as Kari continued forward.

"I know I can get through to him," she muttered under her breath. "Don't you remember us, Andromon. Don't you remember me, and Tk," she pointed to Tk as he ran up, "My brother Tai was with us, and Sora and Izzy. We fought together, we're friends."

Andromon had stopped everything and continued to look down at Kari, it was like he was frozen. "Kari, he's distracted, we should get out of here right now," called Tk.

Andromon than stepped forward quickly and picked Kari up by her shoulders and continued to study her. Tk quit his pleading realizing that Andromon might remember after all. Plus he knew there wasn't much he could do now, Patamon was still recovering from the attack and if he wanted to, Andromon could crush Kari anytime he wanted to.

Kari began to tear up in fear and despair at the thought that a good friend had become controlled by such an evil force, "Don't you remember?" she asked quietly as her digivice fell from her hand. The device hit Andromon's shoulder and shown a bright light. Sparks began to fly from the dark ring. Tk looked on as the digivice appeared to short circuit the dark ring.

"Kari?" asked Andromon as he put the girl back on the ground.

"Andromon?" responded Kari, "I knew you recognized me!"

Andromon ripped the dark ring around his neck to shreds. "Thank you Kari, you helped me realize myself again. I'll never let myself succumb to dark powers like that ever again. I apologize for my behavior."

Tk came running up, "Its okay Andromon, you can't help what you do when you're under the control of the digimon emperor."

"Thank you, Tk, old friend. Its great to see you again." He stopped and looked up at the control spire. "I will destroy this spire and protect this area from the digital emperor." He did as he said he would and the children said their goodbyes.

As they were leaving the city on their digimon they ran into Yolei, Cody, Tai, Matt, and Izzy on their way in. "We brought some reinforcements!" yelled Cody from the back of Halsemon.

"Sorry guys, you're too late, the party's over," yelled Davis from the back of Nefertimon, "Another control spire has hit the dust."

"Alright then, let's get you guys home, it's dinner time," Tai yelled from his perch atop Greymon. At that the whole crew turned around and headed back towards the nearest gate.

Most of the kids rushed home as soon as they got back so they wouldn't miss dinner. Matt and Tk on the other hand took their time walking back to their dad's place together. "I already called mom and told her that you'd be staying with us tonight."

"Thanks, Matt," Tk said absently as if his mind was on other things.

"How are things going with mom anyway?" Matt asked trying to get some kind of response out of his brother.

"Fine."

Matt knew something was wrong, Tk never passed up an opportunity to mention how much mom worked and left him alone. "What's wrong Tk? Did something happen in there?" Tk hesitated, but eventually went on to explain the whole thing with Andromon, the digivice, and the dark ring. "That's interesting, but I don't understand why that's made you so uneasy."

Tk took a deep breath, "Over the past few weeks I've been getting an uneasy feeling about the digital world and the digimon emperor. I think there's something much darker and more sinister behind all this than just the emperor. I'm beginning to think that he's just a kid that has been manipulated and used by some greater darkness to create havoc in the digital world."

"That's certainly a solid theory, but that's not everything, what's really bothering you." Matt seemed to know how to cut through all of Tk's defenses and get right to the heart of an issue.

"The way that dark ring reacted to the digivice today, it reminded me of something. It may be nothing, but it reminded me a lot of how the black gears reacted when they came into contact with our digivices."

That really threw Matt for a loop, he wasn't expecting anything like that. He understood his brother's uneasiness better. A return of the black gears meant a return of Devimon, the first enemy they faced in the digital world. It was also the enemy that was only defeated because Angemon, Tk's digimon, gave his life to destroy Devimon. Tk still feared losing Patamon and has ever since that day. However it had also given him an intense hatred of evil. "So you think Devimon is behind this?" Matt finally asked.

"I'm not sure, but I'm beginning to think so. It certainly seems like something he might try. All I know is that we can't let him win."

Matt saw the fire of anger and hatred burning in his brother's eyes. In a way it scared him, he didn't like that his brother had to harbor all those feelings of fear and hatred, but on the other hand it was a righteous anger and Matt trusted Tk to always do the right thing. "I just hope you guys are up to the challenge of whatever else is out there."


	6. A Villain Unmasked

"Tell them what you told me, Tk," Matt said as the two brothers sat in Izzy's bedroom with Tai and Izzy.

Tk hadn't really planned on telling more people about his theory, but Matt talked him into it. He eventually decided that it would be best if at least Tai and Izzy knew. Between the four of them maybe they could start to figure out what was really going on in the digital world.

Tai and Izzy looked at Tk expectantly as he took a deep breath before he began to speak. "Well, I told Matt that I've been uneasy about the situation in the digital world. I think the Emperor is just a pawn in a much darker game. Something very evil is behind this and I'm not sure we're ready to handle it."

"What do you mean, Tk? What's going on?" asked Izzy.

"Yeah, whatever it is we need to know. We, older kids haven't been able to spend much time in the digital world, we need you guys to keep us in formed," added Tai.

Matt looked at Tk sternly making sure that he wasn't going to chicken out. Tk took another deep breath and then continued, "I think Devimon's behind this somehow."

The bluntness with which he said it startled both Tai and Izzy a little bit. Tai sat up suddenly and you could immediately see the wheels turning in Izzy's head. "What makes you say that Tk? I mean how can you possibly know its him?" asked Tai earnestly.

"Did Kari talk to you about what happened with Andromon?" Tai nodded a response. "It was the way the dark ring reacted to Kari's digivice, it reminded me of when your digivice destroyed the black gear in Leomon."

Tai considered that thoughtfully for a second, "Its an interesting theory, but I'm not sure that's really proof that Devimon is behind this."

"I have to agree with Tai, Tk, the powers of our digivices are impressive. Just because the dark rings are affected in a similar way by them, doesn't mean they are connected to the black gears," Izzy finally contributed.

"Listen guys, I know it doesn't seem like much," Tk defended, "There's just something about that makes me really uneasy. I know you guys might not understand, but you have to trust me."

Matt saw the look in his brother's eyes, he could tell that Tk was a bit dejected that his friends didn't believe him. "Guys, I know the theory is a bit thin, but its Tk, nobody has more experience with the digital world than him and I think we need to trust his instincts on this." Tk gave his brother a grateful look.

"You're right Matt," Tai paused, "Tk, I believe you, but until he shows his face there isn't a whole lot we can do. We can't fight an enemy we can't see."

"I'll send a message to Gennai," added Izzy sympathetically, "Maybe he's heard some rumblings of Devimon returning."

"Until we hear anything else, its probably not worth worrying about, Tk," Tai comforted, "Just worry about taking down the digimon emperor for now."

"You should probably tell the rest of your team though," instructed Izzy.

Tk responded quickly to that, "No! They don't need to know about this. Its just a wild theory at this point no need to frighten them."

"Well we should at least tell the rest of the older kids, and probably Kari too," added Tai.

"Not Kari!" Tk practically screamed. The other three boys looked at him a bit in shock. He collected himself and added, "I just don't think we should worry her like this on nothing more than a wild hunch." The other boys nodded in agreement not really sure how else to respond. Tk was only thinking about Kari's fears and uncertainties about the dark powers of the digital world. She knew the story of Devimon and he didn't want her to worry about him possibly coming back. He told her that he'd protect her from the darkness, that she could rely on him. He'd happily take on the darkness alone if it meant keeping her safe.

For the next week little happened in the digital world; they were able to knock down a few more spires and no more popped up. It was as if the Emperor was biding his time and planning something. Tk didn't like the inactivity, but he didn't have a lot of time to think about it. He had a couple more basketball games that week and had practice everyday they didn't have a game.

Izzy hadn't heard back from Gennai at all since he asked the strange old man (if you could even call him a man) about Devimon. It certainly didn't make Tk feel any better about their situation. He still feared what was behind everything. Sure he wanted to stop the Digimon Emperor, but he was sure there was something greater behind it. Regardless he tried to put all that behind him and focus on what he had control over, like knocking down control spires and winning basketball games.

The next week they had another game against Davis's team. The coach was really cracking down on them after the previous game was so close. It was becoming clear that those two teams were going to be some of the best teams in the whole city.

Tk was impressed with the way Davis played against him. He usually had no trouble scoring against anybody, but Davis was tenacious and aggressive. It was something he had come to expect from Davis after working with him in the Digital world. However also like in the digital world, Davis's game lacked control. He was wild and unpredictable and it made it difficult to score against him.

Tk didn't want to admit it, but Davis was a pretty good basketball player. Not much skill, but a lot of athleticism and energy. Davis was pretty much the only person he had played that he was a fairly even match with. In a way, he was excited about playing him again.

He and Ken had become better friends, well at least if you can call what they have friendship. Ken was very quiet, and rarely spoke to Tk. The only thing that would ever draw him out of his solitude was either basketball or some kind of curiosity that he would have to puzzle out. However he never asked Tk to leave when he sat next to him at lunch. In fact, since basketball had started the rest of the basketball team had started sitting with them as well.

Ken usually avoided friends or friendships, saw them as nothing more than distractions. However there was something interesting about Tk that kept him from pushing him away. It wasn't just the fact that he was one of the kids challenging him in the digital world. There was something dark beneath the surface of Tk's cheery smile. Something he couldn't quite place his finger on, but seemed familiar and relatable to Ken. There was a lot of deep hurt buried in Tk's past and Ken was curious about how cheerful Tk was being about it all.

He figured if he had to be stuck on a basketball team with someone it might as well be someone interesting. That's what Tk was to him, a curiosity. He couldn't fathom someone being so cheerful all the time and really meaning it. Not only did Tk mean it, but he was that way despite whatever darkness had afflicted him in his life. However Tk wasn't much of a curiosity and Ken still felt himself becoming disconnected from the real world. He felt more at home in his digital empire than he did at home with his doting parents.

Davis had worked hard since the first basketball game against Tamachi. He didn't want them to lose again. He couldn't stand losing to Tk again. It was humiliating enough the first time. Plus, he had to prove something to Tk. He had to prove that he really wasn't a selfish jerk. What Tk had said in the digital world had really hurt, but mostly because it was true. He felt like he didn't know how to do things for other people. He thought he wanted to protect Kari for her, but really he just wanted to protect her so that she would be impressed and like him more.

Well he decided he'd try to be more selfless and it showed in his game on the basketball court. In practice he had started looking for his teammates more and trying to distribute the ball more. He still wasn't that helpful in scoring the basketball, but he realized he could really make his teammates better if he looked for ways to get them the ball. It made the team better, their second game was a few days after the first and Davis had already learned to be a bit less selfish and to think of the team before himself. He realized there was more to defense than just defending his man. A good defense required a team to work together and stop the whole opposing team and not just individual players.

The game against Tamachi had given the Odaiba coach a reason to start Davis. Sure his skill set wasn't great but he had quickly become a team leader by playing good defense and setting an example for his teammates to play harder. There second game was a blowout because of his new role as team leader. They played tenacious team defense and were very effective on offense as well. Davis had taken to the role of leader with ease due to his immense confidence and he hoped to take his team to victory against the much feared Tamachi team.

Through the first half it looked as though the hard work of Davis and his team had paid off. They were leading by ten at halftime. Davis had assisted on six baskets and had held Tk to eight points. It seemed like the team was on a path to victory. However in the second half they learned that Tamachi definitely had two stars on its roster. Ken had taken what he had seen of Odaiba's defense in the first half and learned from it. He had studied the weaknesses of the defense in the first half and began to exploit them in the second half.

He quickly orchestrated an impressive comeback directing his team in just the right way to exploit the holes in Odaiba's defense. He lead his team to a three point lead by the end of the third quarter and Odaiba's coach decided it would be best if Davis switched from guarding Tk to guarding Ken. While Tk was still a threat, it seemed as though Davis was the best equipped to stop Ken's attack.

It proved to be successful, Davis's unpredictable aggressiveness disrupted Ken's well thought out attacks. Davis stole the ball on the first three possessions he defended Ken. Ken became angry and frustrated and his team quickly fell behind again. Ken didn't handle unpredictability very well, it made little sense to him and he became angry. He started attacking Davis directly with aggressive drives often forcing his way to the basket with physicality, pushing his way through the defense to score.

In response Davis becomes frustrated and begins to return the physicality. Forcing his way into the lane and refusing to shy away from contact. The final minutes of the game becomes a battle between these two aggressive players. Ken's anger and frustration actually work in Odaiba's favor as his frustration keeps the ball in his hands and out of Tk's. With 15 seconds remaining Davis has the ball ready to attack with his team down by one point.

He dribbled at the top of the key steadily waiting for an opportunity to attack Ken's defense. With a mere five seconds remaining he makes his move, cutting to the basket and quickly rising up towards the basket. As he does so his elbow catches Ken violently on the cheek and knocks him to the ground. Davis's shot drops through the basket and the team wins. However the tension between Ken and him finally came to a head as Ken gets up in fury and gets in Davis's face. The two boys look as though they are about to fight before Tk comes in and separates the two.

Ken was furious and was already beginning to think about revenge even as Tk pushed him away from Davis and the teams began to leave the floor. Ken had a good sized cut on his cheek from the elbow he received and it began bleeding. He stormed off the court in a rage. Davis grinned in pride at Tk as the two slowly made their way off the court.

Tk quickly made his way to the locker room to find Ken and try to cool him down, but when he gets back there the boy genius is already gone. Tk was frustrated not only with losing, but with the way Davis seemed to dominate the game and how he had adapted his game and really boosted his team to victory. He saw a high level of leadership displayed by his rival that surprised him. It made him second guess his initial thoughts about the impulsive digidestined. It seemed as though he took Tk's comments about his selfishness to heart and tried to change that part of him in just a week. He put the thoughts behind him for the moment and focused on getting changed. The digidestined had planned on heading to the digital world after the game.

Since the game had been in Tamachi the team decided to use Tk's place to go to the digital world. So they all gathered together in the gym and headed back to his apartment.

"Boy, T.S. that genius friend of yours has a real anger problem."

"Well do you blame him Davis, you elbowed him in the face after all," responded Tk.

"Whatever, its not like I meant to do it, his face was just in the way of my elbow. Besides you and him are both just mad that I actually beat you this time."

Tk just shook his head at his immature friend as he unlocked the door to his apartment. The kids filed in and began to look around.

"This place is nice, I can't believe I haven't been here yet," Kari politely commented.

"Yeah its not too bad, it would probably be a bit cleaner if my mom didn't work so much." Tk said, embarrassed about the mess visible in the kitchen.

"Its not that bad, you should see my bedroom," added Davis as they made their way into to Tk's room. Although Davis may have spoken too soon, because Tk's room was a mess. Clothes were piled up all over the place and dirty dishes were sitting in random places around the room. Not to mention the smell.

Tk made his way over to his computer and pulled up the map of the digital world so that they could figure out where to go and take down some control spires. The team huddled around him and began to discuss the best place to get started. However while they were doing that a new area on the map turned black, signifying that a new control spire had been built.

"Did you see that?" asked Cody amazed.

"Another spire just went up," added Yolei in shock.

"Well don't just stand there, maybe we can finally take down the digimon emperor now that we know where he is. Let's go!" shouted Davis as he pulled out his digivice. Tk nodded and pulled up the gate before Davis opened it and they all got sucked in.

When they collected themselves in the digital world they studied their surroundings only to discover that they were in a rather barren desert. They also noticed that there wasn't a control spire in sight.

"Where's the spire? Its gotta be around here somewhere," asked Kari nervously.

"Something about this doesn't feel right, what if its a trap?" wondered Tk.

"Don't be a baby Tk, the spire is probably just over this next hill," yelled Davis as he began to run towards the top of the hill. The other kids began to run after them, but soon fell into a large hole that opened up in the earth. Davis heard their screams as they fell and turned just in time to see the hole close up again. Davis was frantic he didn't know what to do. All he could think to do was run to the spot where they fell and start digging with his hands. Veemon joined him and the two just kept digging until they heard a voice.

"Hello, Davis. You won't find your friends that way. I have them here, why don't you join us." It was the Digimon Emperor and Davis could tell the voice was coming from the other side of the hill.

"What have you done with them you jerk?" Davis yelled as he sprinted to the top of the hill.

"Oh they're perfectly safe, for now." Davis reached the top of the hill and saw the valley below him. Ken was on a cliff on the other side and all of his friends and their digimon were hanging by ropes off of a rock bridge.

"Let them go, now!" Davis yelled in anger.

"Now, now, didn't your mother ever teach you manners. Why should I let them go if you are going to act like that?"

Davis was furious and afraid that his friends would get hurt, "What do you want with them anyway?"

The Emperor snapped his fingers and a large dinosaur with three heads emerged from the sand beneath the digidestined. "You see, my good pal Deltamon here needs a snack, I figured your friends would do."

"No, Let them go!" cried Davis sincerely.

"Hmm, you really do care about them, perhaps I will let them go, if you beg me to."

"Please, let them go," pleaded Davis.

"On your knees slave, bow before your master!" cried the emperor angrily.

Davis didn't wanna submit himself before the emperor. He bowed before no one. "No, I'll never bow before you."

"Well then I guess Deltamon gets his snack after all."

Davis panicked, he couldn't let them all die just because he was stubborn and proud. He dropped to his knees and cried out, "Please, let them go."

The emperor smiled evilly and laughed, "Why don't we try, 'Please, master, let them go.'"

Davis growled to himself, but managed to spit the words out, "Please, master, let my friends go."

"That's more like and because you managed to humble yourself so, I'll throw you a bone and let you pick which of your friends gets to live. Deltamon only has three mouths after all."

"What!" Davis cried out. How was he supposed to pick who lived and who died? A few weeks ago the decision would have been easy, he would have picked Kari in a heartbeat, but how could he condemn the others to death. Cody was so young, he shouldn't have to die. And Yolei, was actually a good friend despite how much they argued. He may not like Tk that much, but he certainly didn't deserve to die.

"Time's running out Davis and Deltamon is getting hungrier by the second."

Davis couldn't imagine making the decision to kill three people, he'd rather die than have to be responsible for that and that's when it hit him. "Take me instead. Free my friends and you can take me."

The emperor smiled even bigger this time, his plan had been to turn the digidestined against Davis by making him choose between them, but this was even better. A digidestined willingly giving himself up to the emperor. He laughed, "Do you really think you can satisfy Deltamon's hunger? Very well. Deltamon, there's your lunch."

The large beast started heading straight for Davis, but before he made it to him his foot sunk deeply into the sand and out popped Digmon. The rest of the digidestined ran up from behind Davis.

"We're here Davis, we're safe," said Kari as she reached him.

"This whole thing was a trick," added Tk.

"If you guys are okay, than who's that up there?" asked Davis pointing to the children tied up. As he said it the all morphed back into the weird ghost like digimon, Bakemon. Davis looked over at the Digimon Emperor in fury, "I can't believe you'd trick me like that. Well too bad, now you're going down." Veemon armor digivolved and grabbed Davis. The two jumped across the valley and up to the cliff where the Emperor stood. "You're going down you sneaky bastard!" yelled Davis as he and Flamedramon landed a few yards away from him.

The emperor was furious and he threw his sunglasses on the ground, "I can't believe an idiot like you, could humiliate me twice in the same day. This is outrageous!"

Davis was taken aback by the emperor's comment, how had he humiliated him before? He couldn't figure it out, until he saw the fresh cut on the emperor's cheek. "Wait, you're that genius kid, Ken. You're the Digimon Emperor?"

"Of course, you fool, no one of an inferior intellect could do the things I've done. You may have beaten me today, but the war is far from over. You have yet to see the extent of my power." As he said this he jumped off the cliff behind him only to land on a passing Airdramon. He escaped leaving a stunned Davis behind. The rest of the digidestined managed to free Deltamon from the dark ring and destroy the control spire.

On their way back to the gate Davis told the rest of the digidestined what he discovered about the Emperor, "So it turns out that the Digimon Emperor is your good buddy, Ken, Tk. All this time and you've been friends with our enemy."

Tk was stunned, sure Ken was quiet, but he never would have guessed that he was so evil. He was furious. He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before. "Well now that we know it, we can find him in the real world and take him down there," responded Tk as he clenched his fists tightly.

"Yeah let's teach that guy what were made of," yelled Yolei.

They made their way back to the gate and Tk's apartment. The other kids went home, leaving Tk alone in his apartment as usual. He thought about their day in the digital world. He had been impressed with Davis's selfless act in the face of such danger. He hadn't expected that from Davis. Maybe there was more to Davis than he gave him credit for. He tried to put those thoughts behind him for the moment and focus on what he was going to do when he saw Ken at school the next day.


End file.
